A/N: I'M ALIIIVE! I'm so sorry! But along with homwork, exams, a new school and that stuff I had the biggest writer's block evah. Forgive me :bows:
Chapter 8
The Kharlan War and a new Friend
"C'mon! Tell me more!" Lloyd cried desperately waving his sandwich –they had reached the entrance to the Ossa Trail, of course, after buying the necessary items for their trip to Izoold.
"I've never seen you so interested in History before…" said Kratos raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, well… I didn't know my father had made History." He said with a grin. Lloyd scratched the back of his head and yawned.
"Maybe you should go to sleep. You need to replenish your energy… even though you have slept for three days…" he said glancing at him, rather annoyed.
"Nah! I wanna hear more about your past! It's really interesting!" he said and sat up eagerly, "What happened next? After you left your family."
Kratos frowned, but he knew too well better not to argue with him, he would lose anyway. "Fine, I'll tell you more, but tomorrow don't tell you did not sleep long enough. Understood?" he said just like a worried father would tell his three-year old son.
"Fine, fine. Just tell me. This is getting exciting!"
"And there you go again… " Kratos sighed, "I guess it is what makes you, you."
Kratos was walking through a deserted plain, nearing the base where he was supposed to check in. He wondered if the knights would give him a uniform like his father's one, even though he did not like the colors.
He kept walking for a few minutes until he hear some cries and commotion. Kratos panicked and ran, but what he saw made him stop dead on his tracks: some guys were beating a boy younger than him. Badly.
"Wait! Stop! Stop it! What are you doing?" he dropped his equipment and ran to where the guys were, they were five on one. Big mistake.
One of them looked up, he had long blond hair, tied in a lose ponytail and green eyes; something about him made Kratos shiver.
"Hey, guys! Look at 'im! He's come to save tis filthy half-breed." He chuckled and all the others started laughing. Kratos had the feeling he was the leader.
"Stop it!" Kratos yelled again, starting to get angry.
"Yo, boy, you know tis is a half-breed, don't you?" said the biggest of them, a black-haired man, only a few years older that him.
Kratos only glared at them, which wasn't much, considering his not-very-intimidating glare. The blond one only laughed.
"Haha!" he suddenly turned serious, "Get him."
Kratos stepped back as the other four males left the unconscious body lying there; he now could make out that the body belonged to a younger boy with dirty blue hair.
"'Tis gonna be fun." Said one of them. Kratos backed away but tripped and fell to the ground, hurting himself with something: his equipment!
He didn't need to think twice, he got Flamberge out of its sheath and stood up, holding it unintelligently.
The leader laughed, "Wat's that stick, eh, boy?"
But Flamberge seemed to 'hear' that and glowed fiercely. The leader stopped laughing and eyed the sword with greed.
"I want that blade, guys!"
"Yah!" the others agreed and ran for it, but Kratos was ready.
In a furious swipe, he slashed the big black-haired one to the ground, where he stayed bleeding and his wound wide open and burnt.
The others stopped dead and eyed the sword and its wielder with caution. Kratos heard a growl and the next thing he knew was that he was fighting ferociously with the leader, using every bit of training he had done with his father Kyrios.
The blond leader was using a steel blade, poorly crafted, but it seemed that he knew what he was doing.
After what seemed an hour, Kratos finally took the lead and attacked with all his might; it was now or never. He jumped and hit the leader hard, he felt something warm and fluid splash his face and arms. Shocked, he backed away and saw that he had wounded his opponent on the chest. It was a deep cut, and blood came out from it like rain, the blond one clenched his wound and his expression changed to one of horror when he saw all the blood staining his hands and clothes. The leader glowered at Kratos before falling to the ground, dead.
The gang panicked at their leader's death and started running for their lives, afraid that Kratos might kill them, too.
"…That was the first time I'd killed someone…" a much older Kratos explained.
Lloyd remembered Marble and that incident in Iselia, and knew what his father had surely felt at that moment.
"What did you do after that? Was that boy Yuan?" Lloyd asked hungrily, never in his life had he been this curious. His sandwich had been forgotten.
"Hold on, I have not finished." Kratos said raising an eyebrow. Lloyd could almost swear his father was enjoying immensely this.
Once Kratos overcame what he had just done, he turned to help the unconscious body that had been beat.
The body was all covered in mud and blood and Kratos knew it belonged to a younger boy.
"Hey, kid, wake up." The blue-haired boy had a black eye and was all covered in bruises, cuts and wounds. Kratos could tell that he was undoubtedly a half-elf, because he had pointy ears and blue hair, as well as other human traits.
The knight wondered what to do to wake him up and remembered he carried a bottle of water and some bread. He ran to his bag and opened it, took out the water and bread and returned to the unconscious boy.
He sprinkled some water on his face; the boy frowned and opened his eyes slowly. He blinked a few times until he realized Kratos was kneeling in front of him.
He blushed and tried to back away crawling, but it seemed that his left arm was hurt.
"Wait, don't run away! I won't hurt you… I promise." Kratos tried to calm him down. The boy seemed only a fifteen-year old, or so.
The boy glanced at Kratos warily, he surely didn't trust him.
"Look! Here, take it. What's your name?" he said and handed him the piece of bread.
"My name's Yuan and I would appreciate if you didn't trust me like a retarded, human." He answered brusquely, seized the bread from Kratos's hands and swallowed it.
Indeed he is hungry, Kratos thought to himself.
"Ah… yes… er… sorry…" Kratos blushed a little.
There was a pause, in which Yuan glared at Kratos.
It was him who broke the silence, "Erm… Do you have anywhere to go?"
"Why do you care? You're just a human." He answered aggressively.
"Yes, I am a human but I'm not like all of them; I don't despise half-elves or elves…" he said, a little more confident.
"You don't have to feel sorry for me, human. I can take care of myself." Yuan said standing up.
"I can see that…" Kratos answered angrily, glancing at the two corpses lying lifelessly on the ground.
"Grrr! Look, I don't need you help! I got distracted, that's all! Everyone makes mistakes! And don't go thinking you are all powerful just because you killed someone!" Yuan spat, clenching his fists.
Kratos stood up, too. He was a lot taller that Yuan, he noticed.
"You know? I only wanted to help! If it hadn't been for me, you would have died! You should really appreciate help more!" he shouted.
Yuan lowered his glare and unclenched his fists, knowing Kratos was right. He felt pain running through his left arm. His face must have showed it, because Kratos said:
"I can help you with that, if you'll let me… I have some bandages."
Yuan looked at him, but said nothing. Kratos gulped but maintained his gaze firm.
At last, Yuan spoke.
"Fine…"
Kratos took out the bandages from his bag, as well as some pills which would be used to replenish energy; an invention of his mother.
"Here, take some. You'll need them…" he said giving Yuan three red pills.
The half-elf took them but stared at them suspiciously, "I didn't poison them, you know?"
Yuan swallowed them feebly and waited for something to happen… but nothing did whatsoever.
"Heh. You will not feel anything yet. Just wait a few hours and you will start getting stronger and healthier… My mother made them; she's a doctor, you see? She knows what kind of herb gives you strength and which other makes you sick." Kratos explained almost cheerfully, proud of his mother. Yuan didn't seem to be paying attention at all.
There was a pause again.
"Um, yes… erm… I need to clean your wound and bandage it, or it could get infected." Kratos said while he rummaged for something in his bag, again.
Yuan looked away, he could not believe a human was helping a half-elf… he had never seen a human like that before… Kratos seemed like a good person… No! All humans were evil, this was just a trick.
But he somehow knew that was not it: this human, whoever it was, was being caring with him.
"Aha! I found it. This might hurt a bit, but try to endure it, you need this, otherwise you'll get infected." Kratos stated with a small crystal bottle in hand.
Yuan gulped but extended his arm, nonetheless. Kratos let fall a tiny drop on top of Yuan's injury; the half-elf yelped but resisted there as the man… erm… half-elf he was.
"Done," said Kratos when he finished bandaging Yuan's left arm, "all you need to do now is wait a few hours and it should be back to normal."
Yet again, there was a long pause, in which the blue-haired boy stared hard at the auburn-haired man. And yet again, the uncomfortable silence was broken.
"Yes… well… I'll better g-get going… My f-friends are probably w-worried about… me…" Yuan stammered, backing away from Kratos.
He nodded and Yuan ran off, whispering a faint 'Thank you' as he ran. Probably hoping that Kratos wouldn't hear it… be he was much mistaken, for Kratos heard it well…
There was a long pause. Neither Lloyd nor Kratos knew what to say. Then suddenly…
"Haha… hahahaha… ahahahahahaha!" Lloyd started laughing uncontrollably.
Kratos raised an eyebrow and looked at his son puzzled.
"What's so funny?" he inquired.
"It's just… it's just that… ahahaha… Yuan's been like that for over four thousand years!" he said, still laughing and wiping the tears out of his eyes, "He hasn't changed! He's that proud man who won't let others get to them!"
"Now that you mention it… he has not changed that much… although he used to be more cheerful, especially when he met Martel…" the angel said with a smile.
"And instead, you have changed a lot… you were more like me. Now you're much colder." Lloyd said in good spirits.
The smile on Kratos's face disappeared, "Do you honestly think I'm cold?"
"Well, yeah… I mean, it's not like you're mean… but you're definitely not sociable." The eternal swordsman said, flushed.
"…." That had hit Kratos hard. He frowned and looked at the ground, where some ants were carrying a dead bug.
"But you're not a bad person! You are really cool! But you act as the group's Lone Wolf."
Am I really like that? Kratos thought, after the death of my parents, I became colder, but I still showed emotions. Then, after I met Anna, I changed… But... when I lost her… I lost myself in the process…
"I didn't use to be like that, Lloyd… After I… lost… Anna, I have changed… and for the worse…" he said with the shadow of tears reflected on his eyes.
Lloyd panicked, he didn't want his father to think that he was this isolated person, "I didn't mean that, I- Uh, let's change the subject, shall we?"
Kratos nodded slowly and absent-mindedly.
There was a long pause.
"So, that's how you met Yuan, huh? And you've been friends ever since?" asked Lloyd returning to his sandwich.
"No, in fact, I didn't like him at first. We met on several occasions but every time I saw him I liked him even less… until the day he saved my life." Kratos said nonchalantly, making a sandwich for himself but avoiding the tomatoes at all cost.
"Whoa! So Yuan has saved your life twice!" the boy said and swallowed the rest of his sandwich, "At the Torrent Forest, when you released Origin and that time you just mentioned."
"Actually, he has saved my life on three occasions." Kratos said turning a slight shade of pink, "When Anna died I… I was about to kill myself… He… Yuan stopped me."
Lloyd's eyes widened and his mouth fell, "What! You were about to commit suicide! I can't believe you!"
"You have to understand, Lloyd… Everything seemed meaningless; I didn't want to live anymore…"
The brown-haired boy's shoulders tensed: he hadn't really thought about what losing your beloved one and your son could have meant. Lloyd turned to look at his father who was busying himself with some ants.
"Well, yeah, I think I understand what you felt… kinda…"
No, Lloyd, you don't. Until you have your own son you'll know what I felt… I just hope you never go through what I did. Kratos thought, and ate his tomato-less sandwich in one bite.
"Well, I'm gonna sleep now, I'm tired…" Lloyd said uncomfortably, he wanted to avoid his father's gaze.
"Good night, son. Sleep well."
"Thanks. G'night, Dad." Lloyd lay down and closed his eyes, hoping that he wouldn't have nightmares related to his and Kratos's past.
